Knoxville, Tenn- Porn movie actor-turned-cult figure Ron Jeremy and a Canadian feminist author will debate pornography at the University of Tennessee later this month.
The program is among the fall offerings from UT's student-driven Central Program Council.
The CPC includes nine student committees that will bring everything from election debates featuring talking heads from CNN and Fox News to dance troupes and musicians from around the world to UT.
But pitting Jeremy against Susan G. Cole, billed as "The Great Pornography Debate," is easily one of the more eye-catching offerings.
Just having Jeremy - a prolific performer appearing in more than 1,000 films - on campus probably guarantees a big crowd.
The 51-year-old actor has made something of a second career in recent years appearing on shows like the VH-1 network's "The Surreal Life," among others.
"I think (with) the stereotype of what Ron Jeremy is, people may not take it as a serious debate," said Owen Comstock, a UT senior in mechanical engineering and chair of the Issues Committee, "but what we have heard he takes the topic very seriously, and it's not a gimmick and it's not a joke."
The Issues Committee is presenting the Sept. 30 debate in the Cox Auditorium of UT's Alumni Memorial Building. All Issues Committee events are free.
"He has some pretty serious points. It should be a very interesting debate and not just a (show)," Comstock said.
The debate between Jeremy and Cole - an editor at Toronto's NOW Magazine and author of "Power Surge: Sex, Violence and Pornography" and "Pornography and the Sex Crisis" - has played about a dozen campuses so far, usually to a full house.
"It does get heated," said Greg Bura, senior regional account manager with Wolfman Productions Inc., which offers the debate. "But in the end, they agree to disagree, which is a beautiful thing."
Bura said Jeremy and Cole each make a presentation and offer rebuttals before opening up the program to questions from the audience.
He said that students sometimes expect the goofy persona that Jeremy apparently cultivates but said he's not like that in the debates.
"He's a big bundle of knowledge, and I think he brings to the table a lot of issues, ideas and thoughts that a lot of people never realized are true in the industry," Bura said, adding that Jeremy has a master's degree.
According to various biographies, Jeremy worked as a teacher in special education before beginning his screen career in the late 1970s.
Bura said that the topic of the debate is always an interesting one.
"Sex sells. That's the bottom line," he said.
